Chapter 651: Skeleton Army

Everyone spread out in a fan formation, with Elion at the front.

The first line of chittering skeletons was already only a few feet away, their rusted weapons raised as they rushed toward the group.

"I’ll take on the big guy at the back!" Elion shouted. "Nora, there’s no need to buff me. I’ll be fine! You guys take care of the little ones!"

"Are you sure you’ll be fine?" Maya asked, glancing toward the figure floating above the throne. "That undead mage looks quite formidable."

"Don’t worry about me, princess!" Elion shouted back as he rapidly began casting a spell.

A massive wall of water rose in front of them, forming a rolling tidal wave that crashed over the charging skeletons.

The entire front line, now numbering in the hundreds, was swept back the way it had come, giving the group some room to breathe.

Bones and rusted weapons tumbled through the surging water, striking the broken floor and scattered rubble as the wave carried them away.

Without wasting the opportunity he had created, Elion charged forward. "Good luck!" he called to his party without looking back, leaping into the air and soaring over the defensive line of skeletons already struggling to rise.

Elion sailed over the first ranks of the horde, his tattered coat snapping behind him as skeletal hands reached uselessly toward his feet.

Beneath him, the retreating water dragged bones and rusted weapons across the broken floor, but farther ahead, more figures were already clawing their way out of the cracks.

The undead mage followed his approach without moving from its position above the throne. Its spectral fingers tightened around the bone staff, and a translucent barrier unfolded in front of it just as Elion raised his sword.

KRRRAANG!

Kurogoroshi struck the barrier, sending a violent tremor through the air. Pale cracks spread beneath the blade, but before Elion could deepen them, the staff flashed again, and a blazing sphere of fire materialised on the other side.

’That’s not good!’

Even as he thought this, he was already moving. After all, from his perspective, everything was incredibly slow, and he had more than enough time to react and get out of the way.

He kicked away from the barrier just as the spell detonated, throwing himself sideways through a furious bloom of orange flame.

Heat washed across his face, and he landed on the edge of the raised platform, his boots grinding through a layer of mud.

The undead had already begun casting again.

A cluster of burning projectiles formed above its head, accompanied by thin strands of black mist that wound around the bone staff.

The fireballs shot toward Elion, filling the space between them with a murderous radiance, while the curse followed beneath their cover.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions tore across the platform as Elion sprinted along its edge, shattered stone striking his clothes while he ducked beneath one blast and stepped clear of another.

He raised a slab of earth to intercept the final fireball, only for the black mist behind it to strike the barrier and seep through its surface.

The stone began to crumble.

It blackened from within, its edges collapsing into a foul, powdery residue before the spell had even finished spreading.

Elion moved again, leaving the disintegrating wall behind as he rushed toward the throne from the opposite side.

’Fire and curses, barriers and summoning magic...’ His gaze flicked toward the staff as he gathered mana along his blade. ’You certainly have plenty to work with. But, of course, you need this much at least, to give me a decent challenge.’

He had already used the World’s Eyes to examine the creature before closing in, and its weakness had been quite clear.

Beneath the layers of condensed spectral bone and flesh, suspended in the hollow centre of its upper body, was a dark orb overflowing with corrosive mana.

Destroying it would almost certainly destroy the monster, since that was its power source.

Unfortunately, it would also destroy an incredibly valuable core, and Elion wasn’t particularly eager to waste the best thing they would have found since entering this world.

If he could tear apart the body around it instead, then there was a good chance he could keep the prized core intact.

He stepped onto the broken armrest of the throne and lunged.

Another barrier bloomed beneath his sword, followed by a second that curved around the undead’s exposed side.

Elion’s first strike shattered the outer layer, sending fragments of luminous mana scattering through the air, but his next cut scraped against the barrier beneath it.

The mage’s jaw opened in a dry, rattling wheeze.

Elion twisted away as a spear of flame burst from the tip of its staff, passing close enough to scorch the hair beside his temple.

He dropped from the throne, rolled beneath the next spell, and came up with his sword already moving.

Across the cavern, the others had met the horde.

Mayumi caught a descending sword on her blade, turned it aside, and drove her weapon through the skeleton’s glowing eye socket.

The light inside its skull burst apart, but before the body could finish collapsing, Yaana’s scythe swept over her shoulder and tore through the necks of two more.

Bones struck the floor in a clattering heap.

"Left!" Cole shouted, moving to intercept a spear aimed between them.

His dagger knocked the rusted point aside, and he stepped forward to drive his shoulder into the skeleton’s chest, breaking its balance before bringing his blade down through its skull.

Uta’s unnatural limbs lashed past everyone else, catching another undead around the spine and hurling it back into the creatures climbing over the rubble.

Several fell together, their tangled limbs giving Maya the opening she needed. A brilliant lance of light flashed from her staff.

Light magic was most effective against undead monsters; she planned to use as much of it as possible during this fight.

The lance struck the fallen group and burst into a searing radiance, burning through rotten cloth and blackening the bones beneath.

The green flames in their sockets guttered out, and Maya deftly shifted her aim toward a cluster trying to advance along the wall.

"Don’t chase them! Keep the line tight!"